This book traces the nineteenth-century genesis and development of an important contemporary myth about human origins: that of an original prehistoric matriarchy. It explores the intellectual history ...
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This book traces the nineteenth-century genesis and development of an important contemporary myth about human origins: that of an original prehistoric matriarchy. It explores the intellectual history of the myth, which arose from male scholars who mostly wanted to vindicate the patriarchal family model as a higher stage of human development. The book tells the stories these men told, analyzes the gendered assumptions they made, and provides the necessary context for understanding how feminists of the 1970s and 1980s embraced as historical “fact” a discredited nineteenth-century idea.Less

Gentlemen and Amazons : The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, 1861-1900

Cynthia Eller

Published in print: 2011-03-08

This book traces the nineteenth-century genesis and development of an important contemporary myth about human origins: that of an original prehistoric matriarchy. It explores the intellectual history of the myth, which arose from male scholars who mostly wanted to vindicate the patriarchal family model as a higher stage of human development. The book tells the stories these men told, analyzes the gendered assumptions they made, and provides the necessary context for understanding how feminists of the 1970s and 1980s embraced as historical “fact” a discredited nineteenth-century idea.

This book charts the cultural imagination of Haiti, not only by reconstructing the island's history, but by highlighting ambiguities and complexities that have been ignored, investigating the ...
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This book charts the cultural imagination of Haiti, not only by reconstructing the island's history, but by highlighting ambiguities and complexities that have been ignored, investigating the confrontational space in which Haiti is created and recreated in fiction and fact, text and ritual, discourse and practice. It gives human dimensions to this eighteenth-century French colony and provides a template for understanding the Haiti of today. In examining the complex social fabric of French Saint-Domingue, which in 1804 became Haiti, the book uncovers a silenced, submerged past. Instead of relying on familiar sources to reconstruct Haitian history, it uses a diversity of voices that have previously been unheard. Many of the materials recovered here—overlooked or repressed historical texts, legal documents, religious works, secret memoirs, letters, and literary fictions—have never been translated into English. Others, such as Marie Vieux Chauvet's radical novel of vodou, Fonds des Nègres, are seldom used as historical sources. The book also argues provocatively for the consideration of both vodou rituals and narrative fiction as repositories of history. This scholarship is enriched by the insights the author has gleaned from conversations and experiences during her many trips to Haiti over the past twenty years.Less

Haiti, History, and the Gods

Joan Dayan

Published in print: 1996-01-30

This book charts the cultural imagination of Haiti, not only by reconstructing the island's history, but by highlighting ambiguities and complexities that have been ignored, investigating the confrontational space in which Haiti is created and recreated in fiction and fact, text and ritual, discourse and practice. It gives human dimensions to this eighteenth-century French colony and provides a template for understanding the Haiti of today. In examining the complex social fabric of French Saint-Domingue, which in 1804 became Haiti, the book uncovers a silenced, submerged past. Instead of relying on familiar sources to reconstruct Haitian history, it uses a diversity of voices that have previously been unheard. Many of the materials recovered here—overlooked or repressed historical texts, legal documents, religious works, secret memoirs, letters, and literary fictions—have never been translated into English. Others, such as Marie Vieux Chauvet's radical novel of vodou, Fonds des Nègres, are seldom used as historical sources. The book also argues provocatively for the consideration of both vodou rituals and narrative fiction as repositories of history. This scholarship is enriched by the insights the author has gleaned from conversations and experiences during her many trips to Haiti over the past twenty years.

This book's analysis of Navajo creation and origin myths shows what other interpretations often overlook: that the Navajo religion is as complete and nuanced an attempt to answer humanity's big ...
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This book's analysis of Navajo creation and origin myths shows what other interpretations often overlook: that the Navajo religion is as complete and nuanced an attempt to answer humanity's big questions as the religions brought to North America by Europeans. Looking first at the historical context of the Navajo narratives, the book points out that Navajo society has never during its known history been either homogeneous or unchanging, and goes on to identify in the myths persisting traditions which represent differing points of view within the society. The major transformations of the Navajo people, from a northern hunting and gathering society to a farming, then herding, then wage-earning society in the American Southwest, were accompanied by changes not only in social organization but also in religion. The book sees evidence of internal historical conflicts in the varying versions of the creation myth and their reflection in the origin myths associated with healing rituals. It also compares Navajo answers to the perennial questions about the creation of the cosmos and why people are the way they are with the answers provided by Judaism and Christianity. And, without suggesting that they are equivalent, the book discusses certain parallels between Navajo religious ideas and contemporary scientific cosmology. The possibility that in the future Navajo religion will be as much altered by changing conditions as it has been in the past makes this account all the more timely.Less

In the Beginning : The Navajo Genesis

Jerrold Levy

Published in print: 1998-07-30

This book's analysis of Navajo creation and origin myths shows what other interpretations often overlook: that the Navajo religion is as complete and nuanced an attempt to answer humanity's big questions as the religions brought to North America by Europeans. Looking first at the historical context of the Navajo narratives, the book points out that Navajo society has never during its known history been either homogeneous or unchanging, and goes on to identify in the myths persisting traditions which represent differing points of view within the society. The major transformations of the Navajo people, from a northern hunting and gathering society to a farming, then herding, then wage-earning society in the American Southwest, were accompanied by changes not only in social organization but also in religion. The book sees evidence of internal historical conflicts in the varying versions of the creation myth and their reflection in the origin myths associated with healing rituals. It also compares Navajo answers to the perennial questions about the creation of the cosmos and why people are the way they are with the answers provided by Judaism and Christianity. And, without suggesting that they are equivalent, the book discusses certain parallels between Navajo religious ideas and contemporary scientific cosmology. The possibility that in the future Navajo religion will be as much altered by changing conditions as it has been in the past makes this account all the more timely.

This book on culture and consciousness in history concerns the worldwide transformations of Jewish culture and society, and the revival of the ancient Hebrew language following the waves of pogroms ...
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This book on culture and consciousness in history concerns the worldwide transformations of Jewish culture and society, and the revival of the ancient Hebrew language following the waves of pogroms in Russia in 1881, when large numbers of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe redefined their identity as Jews in a new and baffling world.Less

Language in Time of Revolution

Benjamin Harshav

Published in print: 1993-08-06

This book on culture and consciousness in history concerns the worldwide transformations of Jewish culture and society, and the revival of the ancient Hebrew language following the waves of pogroms in Russia in 1881, when large numbers of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe redefined their identity as Jews in a new and baffling world.

This book examines what it means to be a compassionate, caring person in a place like Russia, which has become a country of stark income inequalities and political restrictions.Through vivid ...
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This book examines what it means to be a compassionate, caring person in a place like Russia, which has become a country of stark income inequalities and political restrictions.Through vivid ethnography about a thriving Moscow-based network of religious and secular charitable service providers, the book explores how assistance providers’ efforts to “do the right thing” for their communities produce new modes of social justice and civic engagement. As the experiences and perspectives of the assistance workers, government officials, recipients, and supporters documented here reveal, their work and beliefs are shaped by a practical philosophy of goodness and kindness. Despite the hardships, injustices, and despair these individuals witness on a regular basis, there is a pervasive sense of optimism that human kindness will ultimately prevail over poverty, injury, and injustice. Ultimately, what connects members of this diverse group of individuals and organizations is a shared concern that caring for others is not simply either a practical matter or an idealistic, even utopian vision, but a project of faith and hope. Together care-seekers and care-givers destabilize and remake the meaning of “faith” and “faith-based” by putting into practice a vision of humane-ness and humanitarianism that transcends such boundaries between “state” and “private,” “religious” and secular.”Less

Living Faithfully in an Unjust World : Compassionate Care in Russia

Melissa L. Caldwell

Published in print: 2016-11-08

This book examines what it means to be a compassionate, caring person in a place like Russia, which has become a country of stark income inequalities and political restrictions.Through vivid ethnography about a thriving Moscow-based network of religious and secular charitable service providers, the book explores how assistance providers’ efforts to “do the right thing” for their communities produce new modes of social justice and civic engagement. As the experiences and perspectives of the assistance workers, government officials, recipients, and supporters documented here reveal, their work and beliefs are shaped by a practical philosophy of goodness and kindness. Despite the hardships, injustices, and despair these individuals witness on a regular basis, there is a pervasive sense of optimism that human kindness will ultimately prevail over poverty, injury, and injustice. Ultimately, what connects members of this diverse group of individuals and organizations is a shared concern that caring for others is not simply either a practical matter or an idealistic, even utopian vision, but a project of faith and hope. Together care-seekers and care-givers destabilize and remake the meaning of “faith” and “faith-based” by putting into practice a vision of humane-ness and humanitarianism that transcends such boundaries between “state” and “private,” “religious” and secular.”

In this study, the myth of the Noble Savage is an altogether different myth from the one defended or debunked by others over the years. That the concept of the Noble Savage was first invented by ...
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In this study, the myth of the Noble Savage is an altogether different myth from the one defended or debunked by others over the years. That the concept of the Noble Savage was first invented by Rousseau in the mid-eighteenth century in order to glorify the “natural” life is easily refuted. The myth which persists is that there was ever, at any time, widespread belief in the nobility of savages. The fact is, as this book shows, the humanist eighteenth century actually avoided the term because of its association with the feudalist-colonialist mentality that had spawned it 150 years earlier. The Noble Savage reappeared in the mid-nineteenth century, however, when the “myth” was deliberately used to fuel anthropology's oldest and most successful hoax. This book's narrative follows the career of anthropologist John Crawfurd, whose political ambition and racist agenda were well served by his construction of what was manifestly a myth of savage nobility. Generations of anthropologists have accepted the existence of the myth as fact, and the book makes clear the extent to which the misdirection implicit in this circumstance can enter into struggles over human rights and racial equality.Less

The Myth of the Noble Savage

Ter Ellingson

Published in print: 2001-01-16

In this study, the myth of the Noble Savage is an altogether different myth from the one defended or debunked by others over the years. That the concept of the Noble Savage was first invented by Rousseau in the mid-eighteenth century in order to glorify the “natural” life is easily refuted. The myth which persists is that there was ever, at any time, widespread belief in the nobility of savages. The fact is, as this book shows, the humanist eighteenth century actually avoided the term because of its association with the feudalist-colonialist mentality that had spawned it 150 years earlier. The Noble Savage reappeared in the mid-nineteenth century, however, when the “myth” was deliberately used to fuel anthropology's oldest and most successful hoax. This book's narrative follows the career of anthropologist John Crawfurd, whose political ambition and racist agenda were well served by his construction of what was manifestly a myth of savage nobility. Generations of anthropologists have accepted the existence of the myth as fact, and the book makes clear the extent to which the misdirection implicit in this circumstance can enter into struggles over human rights and racial equality.

Water sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as yôkai have long haunted the Japanese cultural landscape. This history of the strange and mysterious in Japan seeks ...
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Water sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as yôkai have long haunted the Japanese cultural landscape. This history of the strange and mysterious in Japan seeks out these creatures in folklore, encyclopedias, literature, art, science, games, manga, magazines, and movies, exploring their meanings in the Japanese cultural imagination and offering an abundance of valuable and, until now, understudied material. This book tracks yôkai over three centuries, from their appearance in seventeenth-century natural histories to their starring role in twentieth-century popular media. Focusing on the intertwining of belief and commodification, fear and pleasure, horror and humor, this book illuminates different conceptions of the “natural” and the “ordinary” and sheds light on broader social and historical paradigms—and ultimately on the construction of Japan as a nation.Less

Pandemonium and Parade : Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai

Michael Dylan Foster

Published in print: 2008-11-03

Water sprites, mountain goblins, shape-shifting animals, and the monsters known as yôkai have long haunted the Japanese cultural landscape. This history of the strange and mysterious in Japan seeks out these creatures in folklore, encyclopedias, literature, art, science, games, manga, magazines, and movies, exploring their meanings in the Japanese cultural imagination and offering an abundance of valuable and, until now, understudied material. This book tracks yôkai over three centuries, from their appearance in seventeenth-century natural histories to their starring role in twentieth-century popular media. Focusing on the intertwining of belief and commodification, fear and pleasure, horror and humor, this book illuminates different conceptions of the “natural” and the “ordinary” and sheds light on broader social and historical paradigms—and ultimately on the construction of Japan as a nation.

Why would love for their language lead several men in southern India to burn themselves alive in its name? This book analyzes the discourses of love, labor, and life that transformed Tamil into an ...
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Why would love for their language lead several men in southern India to burn themselves alive in its name? This book analyzes the discourses of love, labor, and life that transformed Tamil into an object of such passionate attachment, producing in the process one of modern India's most intense movements for linguistic revival and separatism. The book suggests that these discourses cannot be contained within a singular metanarrative of linguistic nationalism and instead proposes a new analytic, “language devotion.” It uses this concept to track the many ways in which Tamil was imagined by its speakers and connects these multiple imaginings to their experience of colonial and post-colonial modernity. Focusing in particular on the transformation of the language into a goddess, mother, and maiden, the book explores the pious, filial, and erotic aspects of Tamil devotion. It considers why, as its speakers sought political and social empowerment, metaphors of motherhood eventually came to dominate representations of the language.Less

Passions of the Tongue : Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970

Sumathi Ramaswamy

Published in print: 1997-11-20

Why would love for their language lead several men in southern India to burn themselves alive in its name? This book analyzes the discourses of love, labor, and life that transformed Tamil into an object of such passionate attachment, producing in the process one of modern India's most intense movements for linguistic revival and separatism. The book suggests that these discourses cannot be contained within a singular metanarrative of linguistic nationalism and instead proposes a new analytic, “language devotion.” It uses this concept to track the many ways in which Tamil was imagined by its speakers and connects these multiple imaginings to their experience of colonial and post-colonial modernity. Focusing in particular on the transformation of the language into a goddess, mother, and maiden, the book explores the pious, filial, and erotic aspects of Tamil devotion. It considers why, as its speakers sought political and social empowerment, metaphors of motherhood eventually came to dominate representations of the language.

In the spring of 1935, at Snaketown, Arizona, two Pima Indians recounted and translated their entire traditional creation narrative. Juan Smith, reputedly the last tribesman with extensive knowledge ...
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In the spring of 1935, at Snaketown, Arizona, two Pima Indians recounted and translated their entire traditional creation narrative. Juan Smith, reputedly the last tribesman with extensive knowledge of the Pima version of this story, spoke and sang while William Smith Allison translated into English and Julian Hayden, an archaeologist, recorded Allison's words verbatim. The resulting document, the “Hohokam Chronicles,” is the most complete natively articulated Pima creation narrative ever written and a rare example of a single-narrator myth. Now this work, composed of thirty-six separate stories, is presented in its entirety. The narrative constitutes a kind of scripture for a native church, beginning with the creation of the universe out of the void and ending with the establishment in the sixteenth century of present-day villages. Central to the story is the murder/resurrection of a god-man, Siuuhu, who summoned the Pimas and Papagos (Tohono O'odham) as his army of vengeance and brought about the conquest of his murderers, the ancient Hohokam. Here, this text has been extensively annotated and is supplemented with other Pima–Papago versions of similar stories. As a social and historic document, this book adds to the growing body of Native American literature and to our knowledge of the development of Pima–Papago culture.Less

The Short, Swift Time of Gods on Earth : The Hohokam Chronicles

Donald BahrJuan SmithWilliam Smith Allison

Published in print: 1994-09-09

In the spring of 1935, at Snaketown, Arizona, two Pima Indians recounted and translated their entire traditional creation narrative. Juan Smith, reputedly the last tribesman with extensive knowledge of the Pima version of this story, spoke and sang while William Smith Allison translated into English and Julian Hayden, an archaeologist, recorded Allison's words verbatim. The resulting document, the “Hohokam Chronicles,” is the most complete natively articulated Pima creation narrative ever written and a rare example of a single-narrator myth. Now this work, composed of thirty-six separate stories, is presented in its entirety. The narrative constitutes a kind of scripture for a native church, beginning with the creation of the universe out of the void and ending with the establishment in the sixteenth century of present-day villages. Central to the story is the murder/resurrection of a god-man, Siuuhu, who summoned the Pimas and Papagos (Tohono O'odham) as his army of vengeance and brought about the conquest of his murderers, the ancient Hohokam. Here, this text has been extensively annotated and is supplemented with other Pima–Papago versions of similar stories. As a social and historic document, this book adds to the growing body of Native American literature and to our knowledge of the development of Pima–Papago culture.

This book is more than a collection of previously unpublished folktales. By combining expertise in English literature and anthropology, it brings to these tales an integral method of study that ...
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This book is more than a collection of previously unpublished folktales. By combining expertise in English literature and anthropology, it brings to these tales an integral method of study that unites a sensitivity to language with a deep appreciation for culture. Over the course of several years, the authors have collected tales in the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and appreciated, and selecting the ones that best represented the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances of tales that are at once earthy and whimsical. The book acts as a guide to Palestinian culture.Less

Speak, Bird, Speak Again : Palestinian Arab Folktales

Ibrahim MuhawiSharif Kanaana

Published in print: 1989-02-13

This book is more than a collection of previously unpublished folktales. By combining expertise in English literature and anthropology, it brings to these tales an integral method of study that unites a sensitivity to language with a deep appreciation for culture. Over the course of several years, the authors have collected tales in the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and appreciated, and selecting the ones that best represented the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances of tales that are at once earthy and whimsical. The book acts as a guide to Palestinian culture.